We are honored to celebrate the launch of Shze-Hui Tjoa's new book, THE STORY GAME. Shze-Hui will be joined for a reading and conversation with Rubies Alexandra Clemente Perez, Jennifer Hu, and Lena Moses-Schmitt.
This event will include a conversation, short reading, and Q&A.
Books will be available for purchase at the event from our friends at Dog Eared Books!
About THE STORY GAME
A transcendent, profoundly imaginative memoir that explores the complexities of sisterhood, the cost of expectation, and the power of storytelling to shape—and ultimately repair—a life.
In the humid dark of a eucalyptus-scented room, a woman named Hui lies on a mattress telling stories about herself to her listener, a little girl. She talks about her identity as the child of an immigrant, her feelings about being in a mixed-race marriage, her opinions on mental health. But as her stories progress, it becomes clear a volatile secret lurks beneath their surface. There are events in Hui’s past that have great significance for the person she’s become, but that have gone missing from her memory. What is it, exactly, that is haunting Hui? Who is the little girl she talks to? And who is Hui herself?
As the conversation continues, what unfolds is a breathtaking, unexpected journey through layers of story toward truth and recovered identity; a memoir that reenacts, in tautly novelistic fashion, the process of healing that author Shze-Hui Tjoa moved through to recover memories lost to complex PTSD and, eventually, reconstruct her sense of self. Stunning in its originality and intimacy, The Story Game is a piercing tribute to selfhood and sisterhood, a genre-shattering testament to the power of imagination, and a one-of-a-kind work of art.
About Shze-Hui Tjoa
Shze-Hui Tjoa is a writer from Singapore who lives in the UK. She is a nonfiction editor at Sundog Lit, and previously served as fiction editor of Exposition Review. Her work has been published in journals including Colorado Review, Southeast Review, and So to Speak, and has been listed as notable in three successive issues of The Best American Essays series (2021-23). Her work has received support from the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Vermont Studio Center, the Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation, Disquiet International, and AWP’s Writer to Writer Mentorship Program.
About Alexandra Clemente Perez
Alexandra/Alex (first name) Clemente Perez (two last names) [she/her] writes from her San Francisco apartment. She migrated from Venezuela to the US and is writing an essay collection exploring those feelings. She attends many Green Apple Book readings and other Bay Area literary events; say hi if you see her. You can find her @aleclepe on Instagram; you can say hi there too.
About Jennifer Hu
Jennifer Hu is a project manager by day and writer by night (or weekend, or anytime inspiration finds her). Based in San Francisco, she is grateful for the support of Tin House Workshops, VONA, and the generous communities of The Ruby and Page Street Writers as she works on her first novel.
About Lena Moses-Schmitt
Lena Moses-Schmitt is a writer and artist. Her work appears in Best New Poets, The Believer, The Millions, The Rumpus, The Yale Review, the Slowdown podcast, and elsewhere.